Russian, Hungarian and EU officials on Friday denied a Financial Times report that claimed that the EU blocked a multibillion deal under which Hungary is to buy nuclear fuel rods from Russia for its Paks nuclear power plant.

Russian nuclear
engineers are to build two new reactors with combined capacity of
1,200 megawatts at Hungary’s only nuclear power plant, which
currently has four reactors. The deal signed last year involves a
€10-billion loan that Moscow offered to Budapest on condition
that the money would pay for the equipment.

The new reactors would have to be loaded with Russian-made fuel
rods, which is a matter of safety for the new reactors. However
EU’s nuclear fuel purchasing agency Euratom is opposing the
exclusive deal. The Financial Times reported Thursday that the
European Commission last week secretly backed Euroatom’s decision
to block the deal.

Hungarian government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs said the FT report
was untrue, and that Budapest would demand that the newspaper
publish a retraction. Russian nuclear agency Rosatom said “it had
nothing to add” to Kovacs’ words and that as far as it knew, the
deal was approved by the European Commission.

Later European Commission spokesperson Anna-Kaisa Itkonen
confirmed that the EU was not blocking the deal.

Hungary is among EU members opposing Brussels’ drive to break
ties with Russia over the ongoing Ukrainian crisis. Hungarian
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is a vocal opponent of EU sanctions
against Moscow, which have led to a trade war between Russia and
Europe.

He also criticized the EU for derailing the South Stream pipeline
project, which would route Russian natural gas to Europe through
Bulgaria, Serbia and Hungary, providing extra energy security to
Eastern Europe.

Orbán maintains his maverick position towards EU anti-Russian
policies, which he views as harmful for Europe and imposed under
pressure from Washington. Critics accuse him of authoritarian
trends, with hawkish US Senator John McCain going as far as
calling him a “neo-fascist dictator.”

Amid the criticism both at home and abroad, the PM’s Fidesz party
won last year’s general election with a landslide victory,
receiving almost 45 percent of votes.